I Don't Always Die To Save You
by LyliLovexxxxx
Summary: An idea I had for how Clara could have saved the Doctor once, and why he came back for Rose when she said she couldn't go with him.


**The Impossible Girl**

**Hi, so this is my first Doctor Who fanfiction. This is an idea of why the Doctor came back in the episode 'Rose'. When I saw the Name of the Doctor I thought maybe Clara had something to do with it. Enjoy! **

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**Rose**

Rose dragged her feet around Henrick's, moving things where costumers had put them down and fiddling with this and that. This was the point of the day where she got very bored. It had been an hour since her lunch break and a couple more to go until she could get home and collapse in front of the TV.

Seeing that Lucy, her manager was glaring at her, Rose began to fold sweaters as slowly as she could get away with. After ten minutes she was still on the third sweater when a shadow was cast over the bench she was working at. When it didn't go away, a few minutes late Rose looked up to see a petite girl of about 19 staring at her with a look Rose didn't like in her big brown eyes.

"Hello Clarey" she said cautiously. Clarey Oswald was one of Rose's co-workers at Henrick's. The two were quite similar in the fact they both dropped out from high school and enjoyed the same things but Rose would hardly consider her a friend. Rose had first met Clarey when she came to work at Henrick's and as friendly as she was, Rose never fully trusted her. Clarey was one of a kind, always wearing stilettoes (probably to do with the fact she was so short, not that anyone would dare suggest this) and dresses and skirts. Her hair was thick, straight and she wore red roses in it a lot.

Clarey didn't fit together. The first thing was that Clarey was a complete genius. She had computer hacking skills that could have gotten her any number of well-paying jobs someplace Rose could only dream of so what was she doing working in a shop? Also Rose knew she didn't have any friends at Henrick's, she hung out with the people from her part time job at the pub down the road. Also Clarey had been offered several nannying jobs the offered a wage twice that of what they were currently paid and she turned them all down.

Rose didn't trust Clarey Oswald because she was quite sure that the only reason that Clarey was still working at Henrick's was because Rose was.

"I need a favour" Clarey said, biting her lip and giving her a look that no one could resist, apart from Rose who found it thoroughly irritating.

"What?" Rose asked, moving away from the now folded sweaters and heading over to the next bench.

"You see, it's my turn to take the lottery money down to Wilson today and I was wandering if-" she was swiftly cut off by Rose saying very firmly

"NO!"

"Awe c'mon Rosie, Pleeaassseee" she pouted, only making Rose more annoyed.

"No, it was my turn on Friday, the TV awaits after work" Rose said and Clarey sighed.

"Please Rose, I'm quitting this job and going full time down at the pub, but I'm going to stay and bother you forever unless you do this for me!" Clarey said.

"Yeah right!"

"It's true, if you go down with the lottery money then my job will be done and you'll be rid of me forever"

Rose stared at Clarey for about three minutes until she finally caved. "Urgh fine, but you're doing it the next ten times if you don't quit"

Clarey grinned and said "Fab, I'll leave it with Tom at the door and you can take it down"

"I don't know why I'm even bothering" Rose rolled her eyes as Clarey waltzed off in her heels.

"Who knows," she yelled over her shoulder "Maybe something amazing will happen!"

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Clarey wiped down the wooden surface and cleared the glasses from the now empty table. The pub had been very busy that night, several people seeking shelter and recovering from the attack happening up on the high street. Clarey hadn't been there herself, but from what she'd heard a bunch of shop window dummies had come to life and shot a load of people. The whole idea seemed impossible but from what she'd seen on the news, it was true.

It was getting late, but the bar was still quite full. Many people were still drinking away the shock of the attack, the regulars were there, and there was a large group of young men getting drunk in the corner. Clarey had been flirting with them all night, but she was getting bored now.

As she positioned herself behind the bar and began serving some girls, the door swung open and someone walked in. Clarey watched them from the corner of her eye as she poured out the red wine and gin and tonic and a smile played at her lips the longer she watched the man.

He was tall and balding, with big ears and he was dressed in a dark leather jacket. Clarey was certain she had never seen this man in her life, yet he seemed so familiar. She had never really had any direction in her life, she'd just been seeing where she ended up, but when she looked at him… It was the same feeling she'd got when she had applied for the job at Henrick's. The same feeling when she saw Rose. That her entire existence was built around playing this right.

Straightening her shirt, Clarey walked over to the man and said "Can I get you anything?"

He glanced up at her. He stared at her as if trying to figure something out, before sighing and saying "Scotch please"

He was from the North, Clarey observed as she poured his drink and handed it to him. He took it and downed it in one and Clarey noticed just how depressed he looked.

"Rough night?" she asked.

"Yeah" he said with a slight laugh "Like you wouldn't believe"

"Why, did ya lose someone?"

"No" he sighed heavily "I thought I found her. But she didn't want to come with me"

Clarey nodded sympathetically before her brow furrowed as she realised she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "Right… Go with you where?" she asked him, leaning her elbows on the bar and resting her chin in her hands.

"Anywhere. Anywhere in all of time and space" he grinned at her and Clarey got a good look at his dark eyes. So old.

"Oh and I suppose you've got a time machine"

"Yeah, the best one in the universe." He sipped the drink she got him

"I've always wanted to travel, but I…" she trailed off "I'm broke. I got no money, no parents and I'm stuck serving blokes like you every night"

"You could come with me" the Doctor suggested, staring at her. She was young and witty and made him smile. She wasn't Rose, but maybe she could fill part of the hole in his hearts.

Clarey stared into his eyes. When he asked her to travel with him, her heart soared. It was all she wanted, to get out of there, but it was more than that. It was like after years and years of him not seeing her he wanted her to go with him. But deep down she knew, no matter how much she wanted to go with him, she couldn't.

"No, I can't" It took her everything she had to get the words out. Her heart broke when the Doctor's eyes cast downward and the light left them. "You have to go back to her, and travel with her."

"I already told you, she said no. Even when I told her she could travel through space she said she couldn't leave her family"

"I thought you could travel through time as well" Clarey winked before walking away; turning her back on the future she was desperate for.

* * *

"You were there!" the Doctor suddenly looks up from the TARDIS console one day in the future. Clara, who is leaning against the railing, examining her nails, looks up startled.

"I was where?" She asks in confusion. Her brow furrows in the cute way it does whenever she doesn't understand. The echo did that as well.

"Back then, you were there that night!" the Doctor elaborates not very clearly, rubbing his head where he banged it on the console. Clara sighs and walks across the room to him, her red stilettoes clicking on the floor. Her hair is long and curly with a red rose in it today, and she's wearing a red dress to match. That's what made him remember, although when he picked her up that morning she'd explained she was Oswin Oswald from the Dalek Asylum, even though she had worn sneakers. Since Trenzalore her identity changed daily and the Doctor was dreading the day she woke up as some strange alien species or ten years younger.

"Doctor, I'm 24, there have been lots of nights. Add in the fact I've lived 24 years for every day you've lived... that's (1200x365) x (24x365) = 3842050140 nights, give or take, to choose from. You'll have to be more specific."

The Doctor sighs as Clara, or Oswin, does the math without even blinking. "The night I met Rose. I asked her to come with me, but she said she couldn't leave her life behind. Then I met this bar girl who told me to go back and tell her it was a time machine" he says "I think it was you, do you remember"

Clara/Oswin (she gets confused herself now, she's someone new everyday) sighs and starts to shift through the lives in her head. Its easier today, the dalek way of thinking is much simpler then the human. Finally she finds it. Clarey Oswald.

"Oh yeah, I remember. I got Rose to meet you" she says, not meeting his eyes. "Then I was at the bar and you came in... you know the rest"

"How did you get Rose to meet me?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, in an alternate universe it was her turn to take the lottery money down to Wilson, but GI changed stuff so it should have been me. She took some convincing but eventually I got her to take it down for me. Small part to play but necessary, I mean who knows who you could have met up with!" she explains while flipping a few switches and pressing buttons.

"You" the Doctor says "I would have met you. You would have been the one to travel with me! I could have saved you!"

Clara sighs. "That's not how it works, you had to meet Rose, to become the person you are now. Everything would have been different without Rose meeting you. Besides, you didn't need to save me. I didn't die did I?" Clara gives him a small smile and looks up at him from underneath her long eyelashes.

"No... I suppose you didn't!" the Doctor says slowly.

"You know, I don't always die to save you!" she says hugging him and straightening his bowtie. He hugs her back, her heals making her much taller then she usually is. He tries to show just how grateful he his, even though he didn't ask her to it, that she jumped into his time stream.

"Thank you!" he whispers as she pulls away before they head off to somewhere else in the universe.

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**Please Review!**


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